Colombo - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday inaugurated the construction of an oil refinery expansion project in the outskirts of Sri Lanka's capital.

The inauguration of the project by the visiting Iranian leader followed the signing of agreements on Monday night for Teheran to provide assistance to the tune of 1.5 billion US dollars for infrastructure development projects, officials said.

London - Extra fuel supplies continued to be shipped to Britain Monday to prepare for possible shortages caused by a strike of oil workers at the Grangemouth refinery on the east coast of Scotland.

Hundreds of workers who started a strike over the planned ending of pension schemes stayed away from the plant for a second day Monday. The 48-hour walkout is due to end early Tuesday.

Two fuel tankers have already been unloaded at the refinery, with a further seven shipments expected over the next few days, including from the Netherlands and Sweden. They are due to deliver a total of 65,000 tons of fuel.

Gaza City - The Palestinian gas union on Saturday rejected a statement by an Israeli official blaming Palestinians, led by Hamas, for the fuel shortages in Gaza Strip.

Nir Press, the head of the Israel Defence Forces' Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration said Friday that "the Palestinians, led by the Hamas organization, are creating shortages, misery and disaster."

Mahmoud al-Khozendar, vice-president of the Petrol Station Owners Association in Gaza, disagreed, saying the existing fuel supplies had been accumulated over weeks and were "enough for one day in a normal situation" and would last just three hours "given the current crisis."

Vienna - Crude prices eased on Thursday after reaching a new all-time-high above 111 dollars, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Friday.

One barrel (159 litres) of crude produced by the 13-member cartel stood at 110.63 dollars on Thursday, down 51 cents from the previous day.

Prices were pushed up during the last days by the continued weakness of the US dollar and OPEC members maintaining their view that markets were well supplied and an increase in production quotas was not necessary.

OPEC's Vienna-based secretariat calculates an average basket price based on 13 important brands produced by its member states. (dpa)

Manila - The Asian Development Bank said Friday that it has approved a loan amounting to 450 million dollars to build a 4,000-megawatt, energy-efficient coal power plant in India.

The Manila-based bank said it executed the loan agreement with Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd, which is to build, own and operate the Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project in the western state of Gujarat.

"The project will not only provide a significant volume of additional electricity to address shortages, it will also promote private investment in power and show good practice in building and financing large-scale power projects in India through public-private partnerships," said Takeo Koike, an investment specialist with the bank.

Vienna - The price for crudes produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) continued its climb and was hovering just below the 110-dollar mark, OPEC said on Wednesday.

One barrel of crude oil from OPEC's reference basket stood at yet another record high of 109.92 dollars on Tuesday, up 99 cents from the previous day.

Hopes for OPEC to increase production in the near future were dashed as OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri ruled out an extraordinary meeting until the next regular meeting, scheduled for September.

Oil prices climbed up to 119.37 per barrel on Tuesday (April 22) as the dollar value fell to a new low against the euro.

Light, sweet crude for next month (May) delivery mounted USD 1.89 to settle at record high of USD 119.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

The euro climbed above 1.60-dollar level for the first time on Tuesday as officials at the European Central Bank (ECB) officials suggested that they will raise interest rates if inflation doesn’t fall. The 15-nation single currency euro reached as high as 1.6018 dollars.

Brussels - European Union states should improve their strategic oil reserves policy amid concerns over soaring energy prices, the European Commission said Tuesday.

"The risk of supply disruptions is increasing. Supply is more and more concentrated in a handful of countries, many of which are exposed to high geopolitical risks," the European Commission wrote in a paper asking EU member states, non-governmental organizations and industry representatives to suggest how the bloc should deal with energy reserves in the future.

The launching of the public consultation follows a call from EU members in March 2007 to review the union's oil-stocks strategy. The process is set to last eight weeks, a commission spokesman said.

New Delhi - India's oil minister Murli Deora was due to hold talks in Pakistan on a 7-billion-dollar Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, officials said Tuesday.

"The minister is scheduled to leave for a three-day visit to Pakistan on Tuesday evening. He will hold talks on the IPI pipeline there," said a spokesman of the Petroleum Ministry without giving further details.

Deora is also likely to wrap up talks on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline that is backed by the United States, which is opposed to the IPI pipeline.

Teheran - Deputy head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Olli Heinonen arrived in Tehran early on Monday to talk with Iranian officials about nuclear weapons claims provided to the agency.

During his two-day stay in Iran, Heinonen, who is the head of an IAEA unit that investigates whether countries have secret nuclear programmes, will probe whether the Islamic country has special weapons studies.

IAEA General Secretary Mohammed ElBaradei said on Thursday a delegation from the UN nuclear watchdog would visit Iran to probe whether it had a special weapons system.

Anil Ambani group company Reliance Energy Limited (REL) announced that the company’s shareholders have given the nod to change the name of the company to ‘Reliance Infrastructure’ and to buy back 25% of the paid-up equity share capital and Free Reserves up to Rs. 2000.14 cr.

Besides this, the shareholders have also sanctioned to waive the company’s entitlement to take delivery of 2.57% of the post bonus issue shareholding including 6.15 crore shares in Reliance Power from Anil D Ambani.

Suzlon Energy Ltd has announced that its US-based arm has received orders for 200 MW capacity turbines for wind farm projects in China.

The subsidiary company, Suzlon Energy (Tianjin) Ltd (SETL) stated that the order was in two parts.

The first order received from Ao Lu Jia New Energy Development Ltd, China, for delivering 148.5 MW of wind turbine capacity via 99 units of the S82-1.5 MW turbines for use in three wind farms. Deliveries for the first wind farm are planned for shipment during Q2 of 2008-2009.

New Delhi, Apr 18: The Chairman of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodkar has said that the Indo-US nuclear deal is not final, as has been touted by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the recent past.

During a visit to Washington on March 24-25, 2008, Mukherjee had claimed, “We have finalised the language of the text of the agreement for the process of signing. After that, it will be taken to the Board of Governors.''